FAQ General Internet Information
What is the Internet? Where did it come from? Who started it? How's it work?
In the 1970's, the American Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began developing a protocol (like a language) to be used on their network. In 1981, DARPA made the protocol (called TCP/IP) available to anyone who wanted to use it; and in 1983, DARPA said that any new computers connecting to their network had to use TCP/IP - thus guaranteeing its long-term success.
At the same time, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other private networks, were being built. They also chose TCP/IP, as it was freely available and worked on many different types of computers. When these different networks began connecting to each other, the term Internet came into use. To "Internet" (with a lowercase i) means to interconnect networks. The term Internet (with a capital I) refers to the now global network of TCP/IP based systems. Anyone can join the Internet; individuals and smaller organisations use Internet Service Providers (ISP's), whereas larger organisations use a direct connection, which links into part of a backbone (see below for an explanation of the backbone).
World-wide estimates for the number of users on the Internet varies between 170 million and 220 million. Of these over 3 million are in the UK. Interestingly, a Labour MP recently suggested that every home in the UK should be given Internet access by 2002.
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What is a Protocol?
A "protocol" is a set of rules that define in what way information is transmitted - a bit like English is a language.
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What is a Backbone?
It is a high-capacity network that links all the smaller networks in a country, or between countries. In Britain the backbone is mostly made up of the Joint Academic Network (JANET). As in the USA, what was once used only by the academic establishment, is now used by everyone to transfer data up and down the country as part of the Internet
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What is the WorldWideWeb?
The WorldWideWeb (WWW) is one part of the Internet It is an Internet service that links documents together by providing hypertext links from document to document, or server to server, so a user can jump from one place to another, no matter where the information is actually stored on the Internet, or indeed, geographically in the world.
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What is Hypertext?
It is a bit of text in a document, usually highlighted or underlined, that contains a hidden link to another text, picture, or place, somewhere else. It is the basis for the WorldWideWeb.
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What is a Server?
A Server is a computer that holds files, information, or programs for use by people on a network (in this case, the Internet).
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What is a Domain Name?
Loosely, a computer on the Internet providing information (like this webpage) is called a "host" or "node". To locate a host on the Internet, another computer uses the Domain Name System (DNS). The computer looks for a domain name on the Internet (e.g. "bbc.co.uk") by asking a DNS Server for an Internet Protocol address (IP address) to match to the domain name. These IP addresses are made up of 4 sets of 3 numbers. Obviously "192.123.004.010" is not as easy to remember as "www.bbc.co.uk" so the Domain Name System has played a big part in the success of the Internet The problem is now, that although there are 4.7 billion IP addresses possible, we are running out! All the popular domain names are also disappearing fast, if not already used. The .com top-level domain names (TLD) are currently being requested at over 100,000 a month.
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What is a Top-Level Domain?
The .co.uk, .com, .biz, .info, .tv, .cd and all other domains are available here.
These are the bits on the end of a domain name, usually for specifying the country. Like .uk (United Kingdom) or .fr (France). Next is a subdomain-name. In the UK these include .co.uk (for general business) and .gov.uk (for government). To confuse things, in addition to these national top-level domains, there are general top-level domains (gTLD's). These are endings like .com (for companies) .org (general organisations) .net (networks).
Originally, these domains applied only to the U.S.A. because in the early days, nearly all Internet sites were located there, so there was no need to specify a country. As the Internet spread around the world, these national domains (as first mentioned) were added alongside these original U.S. ones. But, because the gTLD's were the first domains to be used, and because major companies like IBM used them, they acquired a reputation that made them seem more desirable than the logical national domains. Now many companies feel that plc.uk or co.uk is somehow parochial & inappropriate for a truly global context. The problem is, its quite common for two international conglomerates in two different market sectors, to have the same name.
So who gets the domain? First come, first served has been the rule until now. But as the domain situation gets worse, and there are fewer and fewer names available, something will have to be done. We can only wait and see what the final outcome will be. As the Internet evolves into the primary business infrastructure of the next millennium, it will not only need a radical overhaul of it's domain name extensions, but also of the structure of the Domain Naming System itself. The Internet is not just the WorldWideWeb.
In Q2 2001, some new TLD's were made available. These include Biz and Info, with more to follow. There have also been some other new domains made available. The .TV domain was made available by a small pacific island selling its rights to a company. The .CD extension has also been a popular TLD for music related businesses.
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Newsgroups
They're called newsgroups, but the amount of hard news in the majority of these discussion areas is approximately nil. There are serious newsgroups, but they are probably in the minority. Even though the chat is often trivial, it's always hugely entertaining. To read the newsgroups, you need to be able to access a news server (these are the computers which distribute the messages sent to the newsgroups). Most major UK service providers run news servers and provide newsgroups access as a standard part of the Internet access package.
The news servers are set up to exchange information with the nearest machine, so that a new message gradually gets passed across the Net from machine to machine. This means that a message that becomes immediately visible on, say, Cityscape's news server, might take a day to reach a news server in Sydney. Your service provider should even provide you with a newsreader program (the software you need to read and send newsgroup messages).
If the software doesn't come pre-configured, you'll need to tell it the address of the news server you're using, which will probably be your service provider's domain name preceded by the word "news". For example news.cityscape.co.uk Some service providers restrict access to their news server to their own customers, while others, such as Demon, allow all and sundry to log on. There are so many newsgroups that you're bound to find something you're interested in, and plenty of things you didn't know you were interested in. Just about every major rock group has its own discussion group, for example, as does any sport you care to mention. The groups are divided into several main areas, identified by the first few letters of the newsgroup name.
- alt - alternative topics
- comp - computer-related subjects
- news - discussion about Usenet
- rec - recreational topics such as sport, music and films
- sci - scientific discussion
- Soc - cultural and social talk
- UK - for topics related to the UK
To get involved in a newsgroup discussion, you first have to subscribe to the group you're interested in. With most newsreaders you simply highlight the name of the newsgroup in the full group list and select subscribe from the appropriate menu. When you've subscribed to a group, your newsreader will download all the messages that have been sent to that group since the last time you logged on. Most service providers delete messages after about three days, so log on regularly to make sure you don't miss any of the chat. When you have downloaded the messages, it's a good idea to disconnect from your service provider before reading them so you don't run up unnecessary phone bills. When you've composed your replies or written any new messages, you can log on again to post them to the group. When you get bored of a certain newsgroup, you can unsubscribe from it by highlighting it and selecting the appropriate "Unsubscribe" command from the menu of your newsreader software.
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Netiquette - Manners on the Net
Netiquette is a set of simple guidelines on how you should behave on-line, tips that should make everyone's time on the Net much more pleasant. Most of these rules apply when you're posting and replying to messages in Usenet newsgroups, but apply to sending e-mail aswell. Always read the "Frequently Asked Questions" file for a given newsgroup before posting messages to it. It will tell you what the group is for and enable you to work out whether you're asking your question or raising a subject in the appropriate area. The FAQ will probably be posted regularly to the group, but if you can't find it, ask someone to direct you to it. Don't send your messages to loads of groups at once. This is known as spamming and is irritating because people have to pay to download several copies of the same message and you just clog the system.
When replying to a message, edit out irrelevant parts of the previous post and type your reply under the relevant bits that are left. Your newsreader software should automatically add a line at the top of your message saying who posted the previous message. For instance, don't quote the whole of the previous message just to add 'I agree' at the end of it. Both your e-mail software and your newsreader software should be able to add an automatic signature to your messages. Your signature shouldn't be more than four lines long because this makes the Net cops lose their cool.
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Writing E-mail's & posting to Newsgroups
Handy Hint: DON'T SHOUT IT'S HARD TO READ. Shouting is when you type in capital letters. You should always try to use correct English (if that is you're chosen language), and use correct spelling and punctuation, but don't criticise other people's mistakes - sum people r lazy & type in the shortest way possible ignoring usual rules of gramer + speling!
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Internet relay chat
IRC is a real-time talk system where what you type appears as you type it on the screens of all those tuned into the same channel as you. For sheer entertainment value it's hard to beat. Tens or even hundreds of people can gossip away on each channel, and you can even be in more than one room at a time, having two sets of conversations with two different groups of people (if you can keep up with it!) IRC works on a client-server system. The servers are the machines on the Net that transmit all the chatting around the world. There are servers located all around the globe. The clients help you to pick up the chat. A client is the program that runs on your machine and interprets all the data that the IRC server sends to your computer and makes it all as understandable -converting into readable text and telling you who said what.
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Telnet
You can do some really sneaky things with Telnet. You can sit at a computer screen in one country and take control of a machine on the other side of the world. Although it is an archaic way to connect to another computer, it has many practical applications. Telnet is entirely text-based, and gives you the same kind of interface that you'd use to log on to an old-fashioned bulletin board service. You can only Telnet to systems that offer public access, or those on which you have a private account. In the UK, there are also Telnet sites which enable you to use other Internet tools like Gopher. Once you've connected to the host computer and logged on, most Telnet sites employ generic passwords, so you can use the system as if you're directly connected to it. In other words, you use the remote system to access and retrieve files in much the same way you'd access data on your PC, rooting around for interesting documents and messages. There are many kinds of Telnet sites. Some have lively message areas, while others are like vast reference libraries for you to explore.
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File transfer protocol
FTP is still a favoured method of transferring large files over the Net, in fact most Internet software is distributed this way. The great advantage of the Net's something-for-nothing culture is that you can often FTP (download) the latest versions of Web browsers and newsreaders for free; not to mention the vast array of other software utilities and programs that are floating around the Internet Using FTP is much like listing files on a hard drive except, instead of searching through the files on your machine, you're trawling the disk of another computer on the Internet Sometimes you need permission to access the files on a remote machine and sometimes you don't. If you don't, you're doing anonymous FTP. When the remote machine prompts you for a username you simply enter anonymous and when you're prompted for your password it's good manners to tap in your e-mail address. With most Windows and Mac FTP software, you can set up the preferences so the software automatically passes an anonymous password and your e-mail address to the remote computer.
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Gopher
Named after the University of Minnesota's furry mascot, Gopher is a sort of halfway house between FTP and the Web for transferring files over the Net. It's menu-based, but it doesn't have the graphical splendour of the Web, though it is easier to use than FTP. Clicking through a Gopher menu is like using Windows File Manager or the Mac's Finder. You're more likely to find academic reports and research papers on Gopher servers than you are on FTP sites, and less likely to find programs. Gopher is clever because it's the remote Gopher server that does all the hard work - all your software has to do is send commands to the Gopher server. This means that you can access several Gopher sites at once, perform several Gopher searches at once and even download several files at once. To connect to a Gopher site just type its name into your Gopher program by selecting 'new Gopher' or 'another Gopher' from the appropriate menu. Alternatively, you can prefix the name of the Gopher site with gopher:// in the Open Location box of your Webbrowser. The files listed on a Gopher menu do not actually have to be on that server, like using the Web, your Gopher program automatically connects you to the next server.
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